Combating Healthcare Disparities Essay

Everyone should have the opportunity to achieve a healthy life and have comprehensive health care services available to them. To achieve this healthy life, people need to have access to the health care system and to a health care provider with whom they can develop a trusting relationship. However, existing barriers to attaining health care services often lead to disparities which in turn lead to differences in life expectancy, health status and a higher prevalence of certain chronic diseases (HealthyPeople.gov, 2012).

Disparities In Care: Case Study 1 Southern Regional Health System try to provide health care to an diverse population in Jackson, Mississippi. Their mission is to provide “excellent quality care for all” and provide care that doesn’t discriminate or is “color blind” (Olden, 2015, pg. 328). One of the central ideas of this establishment is to make the established health care services efficient without disparate. “Understanding the demographic and socioeconomic composition of U.S. racial and ethnic groups is important because these characteristics are associated with health risk factors, disease prevalence, and access to care, which in turn drive health care utilization and expenditures” (National Center for Health Statistics, 2015). Health care disparities include, but not limited

Since the publication of the Institute of Medicine’s “Unequal Treatment Report” in 2002, highlighting the startling but harsh truths behind these health care differences, there has been a renewed interest in understanding the sources of these inconsistencies, with any seeking to identify contributing factors in hopes of creating an effective solution in reducing or eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in health care

When considering the American medical system, it is clear that the policy solutions for disparities occurring outside the clinical encounter

Barriers to healthcare include factors that restrict or hinder people from receiving adequate and quality health care service. Health care disparities are those differences that negatively affects less advantaged group (Mehta, 2014). Health care barriers play a significant role in comprehending causes of disparities. This paper will discuss the obstacles and disparities that exist and affects healthcare.

Healthcare plays a crucial part in our lives. Health disparities “phrase references black-white differences as well health disadvantages characteristic of other ethnic groups “of color,” such as Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans” (Coreil, 2010 p. 167). Many socio-ecological factors that contribute to the existence of health disparities when it comes immunizations. An individual ability to have access to health care, insurance status, income level, provider and patient knowledge have a significant impact on vaccination rates.

When attempting to understand health care disparity, one must first also understand race. As race applies to health care inequity, Williams and Sternthal (2010) suggested that race is not purely biological but also a social classification system created by the hegemonic class. As such, favorable traits are those attributable to whites, thus creating an atmosphere predisposed to prejudices. In a health care setting where providers rely on swift judgment and scientific data to arrive at decisions, culturally ingrained norms are bound to influence attitudes

Health disparities endure tenacious issues in the United States of America, setting certain groups at higher risk of being uninsured, limited access to care, facing a poorer quality of care, and overall negative health outcomes. The high incidence of health disparities reflects the range of individual, social, economic, racial/ethnic and environmental magnitudes. Among the minority groups, African-Americans disproportionately access health care and the health disparities clearly glow in the nationwide.

Although the United States is a leader in healthcare innovation and spends more money on health care than any other industrialized nation, not all people in the United State benefit equally from this progress as a health care disparity exists between racial and ethnic minorities and white Americans. Health care disparity is defined as “a particular type of health difference that is closely linked with social or economic disadvantage…adversely affecting groups of people who have systematically experienced greater social and/or economic obstacles to health and/or clean environment based on their racial or ethnic group; religion; socioeconomic status; gender; age; mental health; cognitive, sensory or physical disability; sexual orientation or gender identity; geographic location; or other characteristics historically linked to discrimination or exclusion” (National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities [NPAEHD], 2011, p. 3). Overwhelming evidence shows that racial and ethnic minorities receive inferior quality health care compared to white Americans, and multiple factors contribute to these disparities, including geography, lack of access to adequate health coverage, communication difficulties between patients and providers, cultural barriers, and lack of access to providers (American College of Physicians,

I enjoyed reading your DQ1 post this week, and there are a lot of contributing factors that led to disparities within the health care system. There are a lot of federal initiative to help aid in decreasing disparities within the health care system like the National HIV/AIDS strategy. The Healthy People 2020 initiative has been a useful tool to track disparities within the United States (U.S.) healthcare system. They analyze and track a wide variety of factors that can lead to disparities like geographic location, ethnicity, and sexual orientation (chap. 11). To end disparities, there has to be an effective way to monitor progression and educate every individual in the health care system about disparities. But like

For decades, a person’s socioeconomic status or SES has affected the healthcare that people receive due to race and “wealth”. This problem has plagued American society because of these factors leading to many receiving inadequate healthcare. All of these factors for someone’s SES has changed a lot in the healthcare domain that is unfair to many who are not the “ideal”. Due to this the perception, experiences with healthcare waver and are different between the stages of these SES’s. No matter the status of a person they should receive the same amount of care, treatment, and closer.

One of the points raised in IOM’s article to prove that racism is a prevalent cause of health care disparity is the way the health care system is set-up, meaning at times, some hospitals and clinics can adopt a policy to contain health care cost, but may pose hindrances to minority patients’ capability to access the care.

There is some sort of reasons existing for the disparities in health care such as,

Within the United States, there are substantial inequalities between the places and people. The rural community is one of such significant inequalities and health care disparities. With approximately one-sixth of the population in the United States of America living in rural areas, it is necessary to address the social and economic conditions accountable for the health disparities and inequalities among this vulnerable population.

Changes in access to health care across different populations are the chief reason for current disparities in health care provision. These changes occur for several reasons, and some of the main factors that contribute to the problem in the United States are: Lack of health insurance – Several racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and other minority groups lack adequate health insurance coverage in comparison with people who can afford healthcare insurance. The majority of these individuals are likely to put off health care or go without the necessary healthcare and medication that is needed. Lack of financial resources – Lack of accessibility to funding is a barrier to health care for a lot of people living in the United States